I gotta hand it to ’em. They did it. Credit where credit is due.
When we got official word that New Realm Brewing Company was expanding to Savannah and opening a gastropub downtown a couple of months ago, we were told they were looking at opening ‘April or May.’
That’s pretty quick I said. “Well, that’s the plan.” They said.
More times than not, ‘plans’ to open a new restaurant in Savannah allllllways take longer than the owner wants them to. Just ask anyone who has done it. So when I was told “April or May’ I expected sometime deeper into May.
Well, what do I know? They are now open for business.
I had the pleasure of visiting with Grant MacPherson this week. He’s New Realm’s Director of Culinary. It’s not going on the menu unless he puts it there. It’s that simple. Grant has cooked all over the world at a lot of fancy places. You get the idea. He knows what’s up. He’s a super energetic guy with a significant fine dining background that believes food doesn’t have to be fancy to be delicious.
I look forward to chatting with him some more down the road.
It was a simple run through tasting, if you will, of the items you will find on the menu here in Savannah. Shishito peppers with sesame seeds and ginger aioli, roasted chicken meatballs, mac and cheese with an IPA glaze, chicken wings (the blue cheese fondue was crazzzzy good), fried flounder and more.
It was a hearty nosh of an introduction to what they will be offering here.
The menu is bigger, obviously, but it is not huge. Nor is it filled with items you have trouble pronouncing. This isn’t Savannah’s newest over the top expensive ‘date night’ restaurant. New Realm Brewing Company is sandwiches, burgers, wings. Right now there are three “Main Events” on the menu. Fish and Chips, BBQ Chicken and an Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl.
On the beverage side, there are plans to distill their own spirits there, but for now, they are bringing in their beers and spirits from their other locations. I guess if there was a corner to cut in order to get open quickly, that was as good as any.
We’ll talk about those beers and spirits down the road.
The bar area has multiple huge screen televisions which will be inviting to any walk by crowd in search of a score of a break of any kind during peak ‘sportsing’ seasons.
There are three floors at this beautifully re-done property on the corner of Whitaker and State streets downtown Savannah. Eventually they plan to use some of it for private events upstairs, but for now it’s all available for dining.
There have been an absolute ton of moving pieces ahead of this opening. It seemed like every time I walked by the last few weeks, someone was cleaning, wiping, putting up window signage and more. While I was there, their new permanent sign was going up on the side of the building. They’ve been grinding.
That would include hiring new staff and getting them ready to go the New Realm way. Grant tells me there have been a ton of long days turned marathons. Multiply that times two. New Realm will also be opening a location in Charleston next month. To go along with their spots in Atlanta and Virginia Beach.
The curtain on this show in Savannah goes up Monday at 11am for lunch. Go check ’em out. And eat it and like it.
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